Funding has been secured to ensure that the construction of the Phase 2 leach pad at the Florida Canyon gold mine, in Nevada, remains on track for completion in the second quarter of next year, TSX- and NYSE American-listed Alio Gold reported on Thursday.
The company closed a $15-million loan facility with Sprott Private Resource Lending II.
In conjunction with closing of the loan facility, Alio issued 1 286 228 shares to Sprott.
Final approvals for the construction of the Phase 2 leach pad were received on October 2. Total capital for the leach pad is expected to be about $14.9-million, the company said earlier this month.
Alio has received regulatory approvals for phased construction, which facilitates early leach operations on the new pad which will result in improved operating efficiencies.
The current design capacity is sufficient for about three years of production and the miner said additional capacity could be realised by increasing the height of the heap.
The Florida Canyon mine restarted production after a rehabilitation period in April 2017 and achieved commercial production in December that year. A life-of-mine (LoM) plan envisions a 9.8 year mine life with LoM production of 734 000 oz of gold. In 2019 it is expected the mine will produce about 60 000 oz.